Author Archives: escapethereview

Unlock!: Expedition: Challenger

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

In each set of games Unlock! releases, the third game has always been the one rated with the highest difficulty, has been the most innovative and ambitious in design, and – so far – has been my favourite of the box. Expedition: Challenger continues t… (more)

Unlock!: The Night of the Boogeymen

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

Unlock! are nothing if not experimental. I imagine it’s due to the variety of designers involved, typically a different designer for each game, but the way each game is distinctive not just in presentation but in gameplay is one of the series’s parti… (more)

Journal 29: Revelation

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

Naturally, the first thing I have to mention here is the terrible missed opportunity in not calling this book Journal 30. Leaving that aside, Revelation is of course the follow-up to Journal 29, a puzzle book that managed to spawn a small sub-genre o… (more)

Paradox Project: The Bookshop

Athens, May 2019

I’ve been eager to play Paradox Project’s original three-hour game ever since I heard about it. I’m now heartily glad I didn’t play it sooner – because if I had, I’d have missed out on the chance to also play its 200 minute sequel. The first is an ex… (more)

Escapepolis: Cosmos 05

Athens, May 2019

I’m a sucker for spaceship and sci-fi games. (My teammate, not so much.) And one of the great defining classics of movie sci-fi is 2001: A Space Odyssey, which pretty much created the trope of the coldly homicidal computer in a story that’s inspired … (more)

Escapepolis: Avissos

Athens, May 2019

Avissos is a deep sea adventure: deep in the Marianas Trench, the scientists at an underwater laboratory have mysteriously vanished, and you’ve been tasked with discovering their fate. As an extra complication, seismic readings indicate that there’s … (more)

The Brainfall Hotel: Dark Seas

Athens, May 2019

Third in Brainfall’s trilogy of games, Dark Seas takes the story in an unexpected direction by setting it on a pirate ship, though you’re still nominally in Wonderland. The Hatter remains the villain of the tale but features much less prominently, an… (more)

The Brainfall Hotel: Down The Rabbit Hole

Athens, May 2019

Live actors are a major part of all three Brainfall games, but this takes a very different form in Down The Rabbit Hole, which is considered an ‘action’ game. This means that you’re not interacting with actors simply through dialogue, but running and… (more)

The Brainfall Hotel: Looking Glass

Athens, May 2019

Brainfall’s trilogy of games all play on an Alice in Wonderland theme, but the venue itself styles itself as a hotel: a darkly luxurious establishment where the staff are in costume and you might see a skull behind the checkin desk. The design may no… (more)

MasterClue: Defcon 2

Athens, May 2019

At time of writing MasterClue’s website is in Greek only, which made booking a slightly hairy process reliant on Google Translate – but the game is entirely fine to play in English. Which is only appropriate, since it’s set in a U.S. military base. T… (more)